In this hilarious series by artist Kurt McRobert, we take a look at all the different kinds of New York City bikers. The twelve illustrations show everything from a fashion forward cyclist, with her fedora hat and red pumps cruising down the streets of Soho, to the fanny pack sporting tourists, with their classic I heart NY shirts, stopping traffic to take their shots. Are these NYC stereotypes spot on? You tell us. NYC Bikes was featured in the magazine TIme Out New York.

Comments

Personally I think these are not just stupid, most of them are totally off the mark. Example "The Citibike Rider". I see people riding these every day. Usually people on their way to work. They are moving just as fast if not faster than traffic. They usually stay to one side of the road and keep a nice line. Generally they ride in the bike lanes. Mostly they are not causing any road rage that I can see.

The same goes for most of the others, like “The Weekend Warriors” which most people think of as the spandex clad bunch not the jeans and t-shirt crew, but are depicted here as “Journeyman”.

Lastly “The Tourist” who, if they are stopping on a bridge to take a picture are doing it on/in a bike lane, not the middle of the road where they would be blocking traffic.

What I see here is the same thing I always see with stereotyping – failed attempts at humor based on small items shown by people who don’t fit in the stereotyper’s lifestyle – in this case bicyclists are made to be the bad guys in the area of transportation. What this type of stereotyping leaves out is that although there are some individuals that fit small to full examples of what is discussed the actuality is that there is a spectrum of descriptive that can be used to describe bicyclists. I for one fit every single descriptive here is.

The problem here is that pedestrians cause way more road rage then bicyclists. They block intersections, stand out in the roadway off the curb, cross wherever they want to, cross against the light, and block each other on the sidewalk. Worse still is that there are no rules for controlling slow moving people like move to one side or to not stop on a dime wherever someone wants to without looking at who is behind them, or to turn right or left without looking at who is next to them. And, to be honest, I fit some of those stereotypes as well.